Headline

Pope Out Of Danger, Talk Turns To Return Home

Published

7 months ago

March 11, 2025

Editor

Pope Francis was reported to be in good spirits Tuesday after the Vatican declared he was out of danger and could even be discharged in the near future after almost one month in hospital with pneumonia.

The 88-year-old head of the Catholic Church has been in Rome’s Gemelli hospital since February 14 with pneumonia in both lungs and has suffered several respiratory crises that sparked real fear for his life.

But after a week of steady improvements, the Holy See on Monday evening said his prognosis was no longer considered “reserved”, or uncertain — meaning his life is no longer at risk.

His condition remains complex and he will require hospital treatment for “several more days”, it added — with the implication that after that, he could go home to the Vatican.

A Vatican source on Tuesday denied, however, that preparations were under way for his return to the Santa Marta residence, indicating his discharge was not imminent.

Francis missed the start of the Lent religious period last week.

Speculation is now growing as to whether he may be able to participate in celebrations for Easter, the holiest period in the Christian calendar which culminates on April 20.

Simonetta Maronge, an employee of the Santa Marta, urged the pope to come home soon.

“May he return to Santa Marta soon, we deeply love him and Santa Marta is empty without him,” she told AFP outside the Gemelli hospital.

– Prayers and meditation –

The Vatican source said Tuesday that the pope’s spirits were “good”.

The press office said he had that morning prayed in the private chapel next to the papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital, and that he had taken part remotely in spiritual exercises — prayers and meditation — in the Vatican.

The Vatican has been giving twice-daily updates on the pope’s health, but these have been reduced since he has improved, and no formal bulletin was expected Tuesday evening.

“The improvements recorded in the previous days have been further consolidated, as confirmed by blood tests and clinical objectivity and the good response to pharmacological therapy,” the Vatican said in a statement Monday evening.

“For these reasons, the doctors have decided today to lift their reserved prognosis.”

It added that “given the complexity of the pope’s clinical picture and the severe infection present at the time of hospitalisation, it will still be necessary to continue pharmacological treatment in a hospital setting for several more days”.

– Video games –
The pontiff has been doing some work off and on during his hospitalisation, making calls and having occasional visitors, the Vatican says.

One child treated in Rome’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which is also run by the Vatican, sent him a message offering another way to pass the time.

“Dear Pope, I suggest you get someone to give you a PlayStation,” young Alex wrote, according to pictures and drawings released by Bambino Gesu.

Pilgrims visiting Rome for the 2025 Jubilee holy year celebrations have been praying every night for the pope, while special services have been held in churches around the world.

Mimmo Laundando, an Italian pensioner who was at the Gemelli hospital on Tuesday, expressed the hopes of many that Francis would recover, saying he was sorely needed.

“I am hopeful, I think there is really a need for a pope like Francis for all of us, for the whole world,” he said.

Laundando added that he had always dreamed of being the pontiff’s chauffeur, adding: “Now I am here with the car with the idea that maybe if he needs to, I can drive him back.”

Pope Francis will on Thursday mark 12 years as leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics.

Even as he recovers, his hospitalisation — the longest and most serious of his papacy — has revived questions about his future.

The Jesuit has always held open the possibility of resigning like his predecessor, the German Benedict XVI, although he also insisted he had no intention of quitting.

Headline

Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Clashes Escalate After Alleged Air Strikes

Published

1 day ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

Afghanistan’s Taliban forces launched armed reprisals against Pakistani soldiers along the shared border on Saturday, accusing Islamabad of carrying out air strikes on its soil, senior officials from several provinces said Saturday.

On Thursday, two explosions were heard in the Afghan capital and another in the southeast of the country. The following day, the Taliban-run defence ministry blamed the attacks on Pakistan, accusing its neighbor of violating its sovereignty.

“In retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul,” Taliban forces are engaged “in heavy clashes against Pakistani security forces in various areas” along the border, the Afghan military said in a statement.

Islamabad did not confirm that it was behind Thursday’s attacks, but called on Kabul “to stop harbouring the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on its soil.”

The TTP, trained in combat in Afghanistan and claiming to share the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban, is accused by Islamabad of having killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021.

Taliban officials from Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost, and Helmand provinces — all located on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan — confirmed that clashes were ongoing.

“This evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” a senior official in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, told AFP.

“Pakistani forces responded with heavy fire and shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives. Intense fighting continues, but so far, no casualties have been reported,” he continued.

– Uptick in violence –

In recent months, TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation denied by authorities in Kabul.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Earlier this year, a UN report said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament on Thursday that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed.

“We will not tolerate this any longer,” Asif said. “United, we must respond to those facilitating them, whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil.”

Earlier Saturday, the TTP claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several districts in northwest Pakistan that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

AFP

Headline

Taliban Attacks Kill 23 In Northwestern Pakistan

Published

2 days ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several northwestern districts that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

The attacks, which included a suicide bombing on a police training school, were carried out on Friday in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

Militancy has surged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the withdrawal of US-led troops from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021 and the return of the Taliban government in Kabul.

Eleven paramilitary troops were killed in the border Khyber district, while seven policemen were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gate of a police training school, which was followed by a gun attack.

Five people, including three civilians, were killed in a separate clash in Bajaur district, security officials told AFP on Saturday.

The Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in messages on social media. The group is separate from but closely linked with the Afghan Taliban.

The attacks came hours after Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of “violating Kabul’s sovereign territory”, a day after two explosions were heard in the capital.

Pakistan did not say if it was behind the blasts in Kabul, but said it had the right to defend itself against surging border militancy.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants using Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation that authorities in Kabul deny.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Including Friday’s attacks, at least 32 Pakistani troops and three civilians have been killed this week alone in the border regions.

AFP

Headline

US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax

Published

2 days ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The United States on Friday threatened to impose sanctions and take other punitive action against any country that votes in favor of a carbon tax on maritime transportation to be implemented through a UN agency.

“We will fight hard to protect our economic interests by imposing costs on countries if they support” the Net Zero Framework, said a joint statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterparts at the departments of energy and transportation.

Members of the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) are set to vote next week on the adoption of the Net Zero Framework (NZF) agreement aimed at reducing global carbon emissions from the shipping sector.

Washington, however, described the proposal as imposing “a global carbon tax on the world.”

Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has reversed Washington’s course on climate change, denouncing it as a “scam” and encouraging fossil fuel use by deregulation.

In the statement, Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Trump administration “unequivocally rejects” the NZF proposal.

They threatened a range of punishing actions against countries that vote in favor of the framework, including: visa restrictions; blocking vessels registered in those countries from US ports; imposing commercial penalties; and considering sanctions on officials.

“The United States will be moving to levy these remedies against nations that sponsor this European-led neocolonial export of global climate regulations,” the statement said.